Arms to Hold You
by Terrasina Dragonwagon
Summary: Inuyasha hasn't exactly had a happy childhood...but he may yet find arms to hold him. Oneshot, InuKag, fluff with a spoonful of angst.


**Author: **Terrasina Dragonwagon  
**Title: **Arms to Hold You  
**Rating: **K  
**Genre: **Romance  
**Word Count: **1,592  
**Disclaimer: **_Inuyasha _belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, etc. The song "Learn to Be Lonely" is from the _Phantom of the Opera _film, and belongs to Andrew Lloyd Webber. The song "Change the World" belongs to V6.  
**Summary: **Inuyasha hasn't exactly had a happy childhood...but he may yet find arms to hold him.Oneshot, InuKag, fluff with a spoonfull of angst.

**Author's Note: **Hooray for my first Inuyasha fic, ever! Continuing in the theme of oneshots…I can't seem to write anything else, lately. It's rather annoying. Anyway…I came rather suddenly upon the inspiration for this at, like, midnight one night, when I was lying there trying to go to sleep while thinking about the song "Learn to Be Lonely." So suddenly the idea for this occurred to me, and I had to get up, turn on the light, find a notebook, and write it down, because I know from experience that if I sleep on a story idea, I'll forget it.  
**Dedication: **To Sueric, though I doubt she'll ever read this, for writing all her amazing IY fanfics. I've been sitting on the idea of writing one of my own for a while, and reading her work inspired me to finally get my lazy butt in gear and write something.

So…without further ado…my first Inuyasha oneshot, "Arms to Hold You."

:x:x:x:

_Child of the wilderness  
__Born into emptiness  
__Learn to be lonely  
__Learn to find your way in darkness_

_Who will be there for you  
__Comfort and care for you  
__Learn to be lonely  
__Learn to be your one companion_

_Never dreamed out in the world  
__There are arms to hold you  
__You've always known  
__Your heart was on its own_

_So laugh in your loneliness  
__Child of the wilderness  
__Learn to be lonely  
__Learn how to love life that is lived alone_

_Learn to be lonely  
__Life can be lived  
__Life can be loved alone_

:x:x:x:

A scream tore through the night.

"Demon! _Demon! _Save me!"

Inuyasha stood, bemused, as the woman ran from him in terror. "But…" he whispered, his golden eyes filling with tears.

_No, _he told himself stubbornly. _If youkai don't cry, neither do hanyou._

He blinked back his tears, turned, walked back into the forest. _It _welcomed him, at least; the trees were friends enough for him.

He moved quickly between them, heading for the tall tree near the center of the forest in which he had been leaving. To him the starlit wood was as bright as day; he dodged low-hanging branches and high-arching roots with ease.

This was not the first time a human had run from him in fear. Ever since his beloved Okaa-san's death, almost two months ago now, he'd been wandering, trying to find a home, trying to find a place where he could belong.

But everywhere he went he was met with hate and fear. Demon, they would cry, and run from him, just as the last woman had. The doglike ears and thick silver hair and honey-colored eyes his mother had so loved marked him as demon-born in the villagers' eyes. No matter that he was only a child; no matter that he was dirty, and much too thin, and had he been human any one of those women would have taken him for her own in an instant – he was hanyou, and because of his youkai father he was condemned.

Only once did he dare to seek the aid of this father's people, just a few weeks later. In truth he had come upon them by accident, but, realizing who they were, had begged for help.

It took him a full two days to recover from the injuries he sustained in escaping from the inu-youkai clan.

There, too, he had been an outcast, a reject. The youkai scored him because of his human mother, calling him weakling, half-breed, unworthy of his father's name. He had realized, then, for the first time, exactly_ how _powerful the Inu no Taisho had been.

Time passed. Inuyasha learned how to fend for himself: to fight, to hunt, to hide on his human nights so enemies couldn't attack him when he was vulnerable. That, if nothing else, was a secret he guarded very carefully.

Occasionally he ran into his youkai half-brother, Sesshoumaru, his father's first son. He was as cold and cruel as the rest of his full-blooded relatives. Sesshoumaru, though, hated him with an intensity that the other inu-youkai had not shown; they had been possessed of a sort of detached anger, directed more at their father's betrayal of their kind than at Inuyasha himself, the product of that betrayal.

Sesshoumaru, though – Sesshoumaru seemed to feel as though his father's mating of a human woman was a slight against him personally. He'd tried to kill his younger half-brother more than once. These fights, especially, had helped Inuyasha hone his skills.

By the time he estimated his age to be somewhere between fifteen and seventeen, he was a top-notch fighter; he could track almost any creature whose trail he picked up; and he could sense youkiat great distances, so that he could avoid encounters with youkai when he wished to.

And then he met the miko called Kikyou, and his life changed forever.

She was the first person who hadn't run screaming in fear upon meeting him. Quite the contrary: she became his friend. He found himself falling in love with her, or at least he thought he was. He agreed to let her use the Shikon no Tama to rid him of his youkai half – to make him human, forever, for her. They were destined to be together, he thought.

And then came the shock of her betrayal, and his theft of the Shikon no Tama, and the hate that grew suddenly between them – and then –

He didn't remember much about the event itself. "_Inuyasha,_" she'd said, her voice icy with loathing, and then he'd felt a sharp pain in his chest, and then – nothingness.

:x:x:x:

He tossed and turned in their bed, muttering to himself in his sleep, brow furrowed, ears twitching.

Eventually his movement woke her, and she reached over and smoothed the hair back from his face, whispering soothingly to him. It'd didn't help; his nightmare, if indeed that was what it was, continued to plague him.

She slid closer to him, wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Shhh," she whispered. "Shhh. Relax." She pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. "Aishiteru, Inuyasha."

:x:x:x:

When his eyes opened again, they fell on the girl whose face was mere inches from his own, and he snarled. _Kikyou._

She had leaped back, startled, but – it wasn't Kikyou that had awoken him. Rather, it was a girl about her age, with a similar face, wearing the strangest clothing he had ever seen.

Later he would find out that fifty years had gone by between when Kikyou had sealed him and Kagome had woken him, but to him it seemed as though mere seconds had passed.

He hated her at first, too, for reminding him of Kikyou, for being there when Kikyou wasn't, for the endless horror that was the kotodama rosary and her osuwaris, for being kind and forgiving and unselfish and accepting.

But later he wondered how he could ever have mistaken her for Kikyou. Her eyes were a different color; he scent, though similar, wasn't the same. She smiled, laughed more often; she wore her heart on her sleeve, so to speak, showed her emotions in a way Kikyou never had. Where Kikyou had been moonlight, beautiful, pale, distant, cold, Kagome was the sun, warm and glowing and bright, life-giving.

They fought constantly, bickered over the tiniest things. She was stubborn, and willful, and nosy; he was stubborn, too, and harsh, and loud. He didn't like her time period; she insisted on going back whenever she could. He didn't want her to fight; she wouldn't hide while the others did battle. He despised Kouga, her only friend outside their little band in his era; she refused to ignore him when he came to see her, and continued to osuwari him in front of the wolf-youkai, and call him "Kouga-kun."

She was jealous of the resurrected Kikyou, and Inuyasha's relationship with her. He could smell it on her, her jealousy, and her tears, too, and her hurt. But he felt that he was honor-bound to protect the undead miko, and he couldn't go back on such a promise.

But she'd always forgive him, because they always forgave each other, and she always came back to him. He'd never argued with Kikyou, for fear that she would leave him, and he'd be alone again. With Kagome, he couldn't believe that she could _let _him be alone.

He realized, one day, that she had become more than just a shard detector; she was his friend, he trusted her, could tell her anything and she wouldn't judge him. She never faulted him for being hanyou; she stayed with him on his human nights, and refused to run when he turned full youkai. She accepted both sides of him, accepted what he was because of it.

And the others did too. For the first time in his life, he had _friends, _people who loved him, who cared about him and trusted him, worried and feared for him, laughed and cried with him. Miroku and Sango and even Shippou were the siblings he'd never had; even Kirara and Kaede were part of his strange conglomeration of a family. Even with the threat of Naraku and his minions hanging over his head, he couldn't be afraid – they helped him carry the burden of what he needed to do; they stayed beside him, and wouldn't leave him no matter what he did.

And Kagome…Kagome, most of all, was special. She'd been his first _true _friend, the first person he really trusted. He'd never had that with Kikyou, he knew that now.

He _didn't _know when he'd figured out that he'd fallen in love with her, but he had. She was his koishii, his beloved; he'd do anything, _die _to protect her; she was all that mattered, she was his world. And Kagome, clever, beautiful Kagome, hadn't figured it out – thought the others had; they wouldn't leave him alone about it.

He'd taken on countless demons without feeling an ounce of fear, but when it came to telling her how he felt – he was terrified. And then, when he finally did work up the courage to tell her – wonder of wonders, she'd accepted him, _all _of him, and told him that she loved him, too.

:x:x:x:

He'd stopped thrashing, finally. Kagome sighed with relief and rested her head next to his on the pillow.

He opened his eyes, amber tinted dark with sleep, saw Kagome looking back at him, a gentle smile on her face. Her hand was resting next to her face; he smiled inwardly at the sight of the narrow, diamond-studded gold band on her finger, an outward sign for all to see – be they youkai, human or hanyou – that she was _his, _that she loved _him._

"Hey," she said softly, breaking into his thoughts. "Were you having a bad dream?"

He pulled her close, marveling, reveling in the way she fit perfectly in his arms. "Naah," he said finally. "You were in it."

She tilted her head back and smiled up at him. He smiled back. Kagome loved him. What else mattered?

"Aishiteru…"

:x:x:x:

_Kimi no kokoro furueteta  
Asu no mienai yo  
Nani mo shinjirarezu mimi wo fusagu  
Kimi ni deatatoki hountou no ibasho mitsuketa  
Nanigenai yasashisa ga koko ni atte bokura mezameru_

_(Your heart was pounding,  
In the unknown darkness of tomorrow.  
I can't believe anything, so I cover my ears.  
When I met you, I realized where I truly belong.  
Because of the natural kindness here, we awaken.)_

:x:x:x:

OWARI.

:x:x:x:

**Author's Note Episode II: **I'm aware I don't talk about what happens to the Inu-tachi after Kagome and Inuyasha get together – what happened to Sango and Miroku and Shippou, how they defeated Naraku, what the wish on the Shikon no Tama was, whether they're in the past or the present…in the context of this story, none of that is terribly important. However, I am considering writing a companion piece from Kagome's perspective, in which many if not all of such questions would be answered, Kagome being the sort who would tell the person she was talking to about _all _the details, not just the parts that seemed relevant and important to her – as think it likely that Inuyasha would.  
So: I hope you enjoyed my first Inuyasha ficlet. _Please _leave a review; it sounds cliché, but reviews really do encourage me to continue writing. If I feel like people are reading my writing, and enjoying it, and would want to read more, I'm more likely to post again. So say something! Even an "omg fluff yay" is better than nothing.  
**Vocabulary:  
**youki: "demon energy"  
Okaa-san: mother  
aishiteru: I love you  
koishii: beloved  
osuwari: Kagome's "sit" command  
kotodama rosary: Inuyasha's rosary  
**A Note On Spellings: **In the case of names like Shippou, Kikyou, Sesshoumaru, etc., there are two different spellings: the version I use is the Japanese Romanji, the direct translation of the word into English characters. The ones Viz uses in the dub version – i.e. Shippo, Kikyo, Sesshomaru, etc. – are Americanized versions, for us stupid Americans who don't know the difference between the "o" and "ou" sound in Japanese. I've chosen to use the Romanji simply because technically, they are more correct, and because to me they look better on paper (or on screen, as the case may be). So _please _don't tell me about how I misspelled Kikyou's name or something. I'm just choosing to spell them a certain way.


End file.
